Doug, an avid videographer from the earliest days of Beta and VHS video, began shooting Cacophony, Burning Man and related events and organizations in 1994. His video and film work goes back to his days as a cadet in the US Naval Academy and subsequent filming of various hi-jinx during his tours of duty in Viet Nam where he sacrificed his youth so that you and I could eat donuts and smoke pot in the safety and comfort of the most slack filled culture in history.

Doug’s extensive video compendium is surely one of the most disturbing ever compiled.

This was one of the last Cacophony group climbs to the top of the Bay Bridge.

The ill-fated “Martini 8” climb on December 31st, 1999 was the very last.

Chad Mulligan collected 500 TV’s with the help of Melmoth and M2. Then, he and 800 of his closest friends smashed, blew-up, eviscerated, skewered, drove through, stomped and generally beat the living crap out of those TV’s

The 5th annual “official” SantaCon. By this year, the “meme’ of this event had, for better or worse, taken off, escaping the mad-hatter clutch of Cacophony. Rev. Al and his Los Angeles crew added many unique and amusing SoCal twists to this already sorta tired annual event. Chief among them was the human wave “Santa Beduin” attack over the sand dunes of the Iron Pit” on the Venice Beach Boardwalk. Look for it in the video.

A slide show and in-depth report on scaling big bridges.

Survival Research Labs, founded in 1978 by Mark Pauline, Eric Werner and Matt Heckert was the group that most directly and profoundly initiated the entire genre of modern machine art. Every battle-bot, junkyard war, exploding machine event and mechanical myth-busting sound bite owes this protean group and it’s grinning avatar Mark Pauline a tip O’ the hat. In the mid-90’s there was a lot of cross-over between SRL and Cacophony. The Kill Your TV event was a collaboration & Cacophony members were major collaborators on the Austin shoe:

The SF Doom show:

among many other SRL shows.
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Harrod Blank, Philo Northrup, Emily Duffy, Tom Kennedy and many many other Art Car artists we’re Cacophony Fellow Travelers over the years

The Space Cowgirls officiated at many Cacophony and Burning Man events during the mid-90’s

Artist Brian Goggin’s whimsical and epic street event/massive public art unveiling was, perhaps the defining moment of underground subversive art/pranking as it became more visible to the culture at large. Heavily informed by Cacophony, and genuinely embodying the best of the Burning Man “ethos,” Defenestration was a melding of public art, street performance, underground pranking, street art, circus culture and other vibrant proletarian art forms.

Doug’s epic 23 episode video of Burning Man 1996 (the Helco Year)

This was the pivotal year in Burning Man’s history. This was the year BM left the cocoon of Cacophony and for better or worse became something else entirely.

Burning Man 1996

Sharing a vision and kicking off concurrent with Defenestration, artist Kate (Warrior Girl)McGlynns ambitious Spacewalk event informed countless events to come and the street philosophy necessary to create such ephemeral and affecting celebrations.

Warrior Girl’s Spacewalk September 25th 1997

An ode to the Bridge

Dr. Hal & John Law at the Golden Gate Bridge 3-5-09

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Ed Holmes, in addition to 3 decades of St. Stupid Parades and over 20 years as writer/director/actor in San Francisco’s world renowned Mime Troupe, Ed, due to his physical appearance and devious inclination doubled as the 46th Vice President of the US of A on numerous occasions

Chuck Cirino is an action/exploitation movie director, producer, movie musical score composer, and a (largely unheralded) early pioneer and originator of the concept of “Reality TV.” Chuck was made the first in depth feature Burning Man Video in 1994 (to be available online soon). Chuck filmed many mid-90’s Cacophony events for his TV show and filmed Affiliated groups such as People Hater, Seemen and the like.

Scott Beale joined S.F. Cacophony in 1995. Scott was a nascent filmmaker and had recently finished a documentary film on fabulous but virtually unknown California surrealist painter Alonso Smith . Scott soon began filming Cacophony events and would hand over a VHS copy of his video to the event organizer(s) much to their amazement and profound thanks (no one had time, money or cameras to shoot their own events.) Scott along with Stuart Mangrum initiated Burning Man’s firs.t web prescence. Soon, Scott through his company Laughing Squid was providing web design assistance to his poor Cacophony friends and then free webhosting for their nascent websites. LS evolved over the years into one of the best regarded blogs on the net.

Trailer for the feature length film by Flecher Fleudujon & John Law.
HEAD TRIP. 2008 78min.

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The history of the most influential underground cabal you’ve never heard of

Rising from the ashes of the mysterious and legendary Suicide Club, the Cacophony Society, at its zenith, hosted chapters in over a dozen major cities, and influenced much of what was once called the underground.
The Cacophony Society’s epic exploits radically changed the way people live and play in the world.
The group inspired Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club and Burning Man and helped start pop culture trends including flash mobs, urban exploration, and culture jamming.
A large-format, full-color, hardbound homage to this protean group, Tales of the San Francisco Cacophony Society is packed with original art, never before published photographs, original documents and incredulous news accounts.
“Before the Internet vomited headlines by the millisecond and turned the minutia of a million boring Facebook lives into news, we were left the privilege of mystery.
This was something The San Francisco Cacophony Society gave me in spades. Over the years, I would catch glimpses, collect pieces of a puzzle I was slowly assembling—a car crushed flat by an earthquake miraculously tooling down Golden Gate, toasters glued to buildings, news-clips of mock protests and costumed impostors, flyers for strange art spectacles.
Now the puzzle is assembled in this gorgeous graphic collection, a book every lover of eccentricity and enemy of the status quo should enjoy.” – Margaret Cho